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Tales of the Union: The Visit Pt 1
The Visit by Vanessa Ravencroft, Cedars Sinai West Hollywood © 2014 (Note: a short story inspired by a question of Knight Ranger 1. This story is cannon and will be part of the Story Collection : Tales of the Union) -1- There was confident professional atmosphere of excitement in the mission control center. Lord commander of the Skedrik Sky forces watched the many rows of technicians, engineers, system specialist and mission control officer behind their high tech desks pressing buttons, talking into head phones and checking data and system status on monitors. Behind the Lord Commander a small crowd of Info providers with cameras and commentators speaking into microphones, telling the billions of Skedriks glued to their tele viewers at home. He then paid attention once again on the huge view screen in front of him and focused on what it displayed. There bathed by the glaring light of countless flood lights stood the proudest technical achievement of the Skedrik civilization. The first space warship, the Plobir na Tanga! It meant avenger of Plobir in the old language. The powerful 600 engos tall tapered giant was the culmination of sixty periods of research and development and would be the tool to repay the Cavaro for their attack on Plobir. Lift off was scheduled for one hour after midnight. Exactly at the same time as the 100th anniversary of the Cavaro attack on the Plobir; or in one hour and ten minutes. The Lord Commander could hear one of the Info providers reminding his audience of the significance of that date, not that he really needed to do this as every Skedrik knew about it and every detail was taught in school. He could not help to pay attention to it anyway. The commentator said.”Almost five hundred long periods ago we made radio contact with another sentient species in the closest star system to ours, the Cavaro. Everything changed from that day on. We finally had proof we were not alone in the universe For centuries we were in radio contact with them, but since it takes radio waves and light over three long periods to reach them, Radio contact was the only way to interact with what we believed were a kindred civilization and friends to us. We freely shared everything with them and for a long period we believed they did the same. It was exactly hundred long periods ago when our scientists discovered a method to travel faster than light. This discovery was immediately shared with what we believed were our friends. We also begun to built our first Faster than light spaceship to mount an expedition and visit the Cavaro for the first time. Sixty four periods ago the historic Cavaro expedition was launched to make the long journey. We never heard from this expedition again. While our radio question to the Cavaro was still underway, a Cavaro space ship arrived here and requested landing permission to greet us all, but instead of landing and greeting us they detonated their ship right above our once so beautiful capitol city Plobir. Killing 13 million including our beloved King Askried and his entire family.” He paused as everyone did when reaching this part of the events to remember the terrible crime. The Cavaro liars even accused us destroying their ship and claimed no expedition of ours ever reached them. We had no other recourse as to declare war on them and cease all communication.” The commentator directed the attention of his audience to the war ship shown on all tele viewers.”This is our answer. We will repay the Cavaro in kind and bomb their cities to ashes. Aveng..” The Lord Commander was interrupted listening to the commentator as an Officer with fear in his face and utmost urgency in his voice reported. “Our radio wave scanners on Wurac base reported the detection of a fast moving object appearing past at the seventh orbit..” The Lord Commander paled.”The Cavaro!” He raised planet wide alert. Security cleared the civilians out of the command center. The population trained for this, begun to evacuate towns and cities and retreated into the underground shelters that had been built everywhere. Missile batteries were activated and pointed skywards. King Oskread and the entire cabinet rushed to the War bunker deep under the Kolrika Mountains protected by miles of solid rock and the King ordered to launch the warship right away. Not that it would do any good. The ship would need weeks to accelerate to Jump speed. While it was armed with missile batteries it would had to get close to the enemy to launch them. Ship to ship warfare was considered impossible. The missiles were intended to hit planetary surface targets. The Lord Commander calculated the time it took for the radio scanners to detect the enemy and the Wurac base on the sixth planet to deliver the report. It took over 40 minutes for radio messages from that base to reach Command. The reported speed of the intruder was so great that it had to be way past the fifth planets orbit by now. One of the sensor specialist handed him a report sheet. “Lord Commander these are the results of our size and mass calculations.” The Lord Commander stared at the numbers.”This can't be! According to this, the Cavaro ship is 1500 engos long.” He however knew right away the calculations were correct. The next message followed right after he received the scanner results. “Wurac base reports the intruder has slowed down to a drift and is still beyond the sixth planets orbit.” Now this message was harder to believe.”Slowing down from 1500 engos a second to less than ten enos an hour in under two hours is physically impossible.” He exclaimed .”It would take several million nort units of energy, exceeding the energy outputs of all Skedrik power plants by magnitudes and subject the ship to deceleration forces enough to rip any known material to shred and kill every living being. The scanner expert double checked the results and could only confirm them. He was just updating the King and his cabinet of the latest developments as his connection was interrupted by a display of simple white dots. “Lord Commander we are being hailed by the intruder. It is transmitting simple mathematical sequences on all known frequencies. Every tele viewer and radio set receives them. The transmission is so strong it overpowers our own messages. There is no channel we can switch to that is not affected.” Another specialist said with a voice edging on panic.”Millions of frequencies, every wavelength and with a sending power greater than that of our collected energy output.” Could the Cavaro become so far advanced and powerful in only a few decades? All previous indication pointed to a technology quite similar at best. He reconnected with the king, using an old hard line communicator and could finish his report. The King asked.”Lord Commander what are you making of this?” “I am as unprepared as you, your majesty.” “Hail them on the old Cavaro frequencies and ask them what their intentions are and continue to launch our ship. If we can not stop them, we at least can repay them in kind.” The Lord Commander gave the launch command and the first Skedrik war ship lifted into space without the planned fanfare. He was also preparing to hail the enemy as he received the next frightening report.”The Cavaro ship has accelerated to over 1500 engos a second and is approaching our world. If the Wurac information is correct. The enemy ship will be inside the third planets orbit only moments after we received this message,” Another officer said.”Lord Commander we are being hailed by the intruder again. They have responded to our contact request on the same Cavaro frequencies we have used to hail them. They responded in clear language this time and have image data embedded in the message.” The Lord Commander stood up. Straightened his uniform well aware of the gravity of this moment and the responsibility resting on his shoulders. He now had to talk to the same beings responsible for killing so many Skedrik. Beings that now returned to most likely do the same again. He took a deep breath. Everyone's attention was on him, it had become eerie quiet in the command center. He nodded to the Communications specialist. “Enable the transmission and display the visual data.” He expected to see a Cavaro. Gray skin, no hair anywhere. Large black eyes above a small nose and a small mouth. Unlike the Skedrik who still had the same short fur as the tree dwelling Branch swingers had, that shared the same heritage as the upright moving bipedal Skedrik. They also shared the pronounced jaws and the big eyes with their non sentient siblings. He was not prepared to see a tall peach skinned being in a black uniform. That the being was female was instantly evident in the covered but prominent mammal glands. This alien female had very long golden fur framing her face. She spoke in accent free Kretka, the official state language of the Skedrik civilization. “Greetings, I am Captain Erica Olafson of the USS Tigershark. I represent the United Stars of the Galaxies. We are on an exploration mission here in the Downward sector to find evidence of an alien civilization known to many as the Children of the Deep. We come in peace and have no hostile intentions. Our sensors indicate that your planet may have several Deep Core seed pods. For that reason we would like to ask your permission to conduct closer research and if confirmed remove these pods as they pose a potential risk to your civilization. Of course if you wish no further interaction and request our departure, I am by orders required to comply and will leave your star system.” The Lord Commander was prepared for anything but this. That the Aliens were not the Cavaro was of course instantly evident. The possibility of other sentient civilizations beside the Cavaro was of course expected. “Greetings, I am Lord Commander of the Sky Forces. We are the Skedrik and expected you to be of the Cavaro our enemies. I have no authorities to represent my people and therefore ask you to wait until my government can formulate a response.” “Thank you Lord Commander. We will remain at this position and await your response. The Alien female nodded friendly and terminated the transmission. 1 This story is dedicated to Knight Rider as a little thank you for becoming a friend and an important part of the Galactic Chronicles Category:Fragments